April 5

The John McCain for VP story just refuses to go away. While there would be a lot of ideological hurdles to overcome, there appears to be some renewed traction within Democratic circles for the notion.

Also in the frame are understood to be former primary opponents John Edwards and Dick Gephardt - that choice seems to depend on whether the Kerry camp is looking at a midwestern or southern electoral college strategy - along with Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and New Mexico Governor and former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

A geographic strategy for the Kerry campaign is crucial. An interesting piece in the Washington Post by University of Maryland professor Thomas Schaller that suggests because of the extent to which the country is polarised, Bush could wind up winning the popular vote but losing in the electoral college.

There may be some unease among the GOP that Bush is in danger of losing the "compassionate Conservative" tag. This sort of thing won't help....

Kerry's fundraising success seems to continue apace, meanwhile, with Mary Beth Cahill saying: "We don't think we need to match Bush dollar for dollar."

Nice piece by Howard Kurtz on Fox's "Campaign Carl" Cameron.